Dutch Oven Pot Roast at Camp
A round roast, a bag of root vegetables, and coals. It cooks while you do nothing.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 16 oz
- cal / oz
- 33
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 90 min
- total time
- 105 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Beef round roast | 3 lb | lean, cheap, needs the long cook |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Beef broth | 2 cups | boxed, or bouillon cubes plus water |
| Baby red potatoes | 1.5 lb | halved; skins on |
| Carrots | 4 | cut into thick chunks |
| Celery | 3 stalks | cut into chunks |
| Onion | 1 large | diced |
| Garlic | 6 cloves | whole, peeled |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Thyme or rosemary | 3 sprigs | dried works, use 1 tsp |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Get a fire going early. You want a bed of coals, not flames, and it takes 30 to 40 minutes to get there.
- Cut the potatoes in half and the carrots, celery, and onion into chunks. Do this while the fire burns down.
- Set the Dutch oven over coals, add the oil, and brown the roast hard on every side. Six or seven minutes total. Do not skip this; it is where the flavor in the broth comes from.
- Pour in the broth, then pack the vegetables, garlic, bay leaf, and herbs around the meat. Salt and pepper the top.
- Lid on. Bank coals under the oven and shovel more onto the lid to hold roughly 350F. Rough count for a 12-inch oven: 9 coals below, 16 on top.
- Cook 60 to 90 minutes. Rotate the oven a third turn every 15 minutes and the lid the other way so it does not scorch on one side.
- Check the center of the roast with a thermometer. 160F and a fork that twists easily means done. Pull the bay leaf, slice against the grain, and spoon the broth over everything.
This is a home pot roast moved outdoors with almost nothing changed, because almost nothing needed changing. A Dutch oven buried in coals holds temperature better than most people expect, and the sealed lid means the roast braises in its own steam rather than drying out. The lean round cut is the point: it is cheap, it packs dense protein, and ninety slow minutes turns the connective tissue soft. Cook it fast and it is shoe leather.
The heat management is the only real skill. Coals under the oven cook the bottom, coals on the lid cook the top, and if you leave them alone the side facing the fire scorches. Rotating the oven and the lid in opposite directions every fifteen minutes is what keeps it even. Everything else is chopping. This one needs a cooler for the meat, so it is a car-camping or basecamp meal, not something you carry in.
Packing
Cut the vegetables at home and bag them together; that is the only real prep and it is miserable to do on a tailgate in the dark. Roast stays wrapped in the cooler bottom. Broth in a box travels fine unopened, or carry bouillon cubes and save the weight.
Variations
- A tablespoon of flour stirred into the fat before the broth goes in gives you gravy instead of broth.
- No cooler? Swap the roast for two large cans of beef chunks and cut the cook time to 40 minutes. Not the same dish, but it holds together.
- Root vegetables are interchangeable. Parsnips, turnips, and rutabaga all cook in the same window as the potatoes.
https://campfirefoodie.com/dutch-oven-pot-roast-recipe